The Moon Ascending
by Iriva1
Summary: A post-episode 6 AU all about Tahno.
1. Chapter 1

"We just want to ask you a few questions."

Tahno looked up and nodded. He sat slumped in a cold, metal chair as he surveyed the room around him. The walls were a deep grey, each panel emblazoned with an elaborate circular symbol. A single ceiling lamp illuminated the immense, metal table in front of him. Chief Bei Fong sat across from him, stern and straight backed as she met his gaze.

"All right. We need to know what happened the night of the Pro-Bending Championship match."

Tahno gave her a dark look and wryly chuckled.

"You have a whole stadium full of witnesses. Why do you need to talk to me?"

Chief Bei Fong sighed and leaned forward towards him, placing her elbows shoulder width apart on the table, her fingers touching.

"We just need to know what happened."

Tahno took a deep breath and slowly nodded.

"He came near the end of the match, him and a bunch of Equalists. He overpowered us. I begged and I pleaded with him to stop, but then he…he took-"

Tahno stopped. A rush of fear and nausea rose from the very depths of him and he couldn't say another word. Thankfully, Chief Bei Fong interjected.

"Thank you… I do have one more question for you."

Tahno, fighting a cold sweat and the urge to retch could only nod.

"Did you have any contact with the Equalists before the championship match?"

Tahno hardened. He knew exactly what the Chief was asking. He stared at her, focusing all of his anger at her.

"No."

Chief Bei Fong, shocked by the intensity of his response, blinked and then looked at him for some time.

"Well then. You can go."

As the Chief got up to leave, another question flashed into Tahno's mind.

"Wait! Do you know anything about my teammates, Ming and Shaozu?"

Chief Bei Fong thought for a moment, her eyebrows furrowed.

"No. They haven't shown up at all. We haven't heard a thing about them since the pro-bending championship."

The Chief walked briskly out of the room, leaving Tahno to reflect on the fact that everything he ever loved was gone.


	2. Chapter 2

He spent his days entwined in Sleep. Sleep took him in its leaden arms, dragging him into a world without feeling, without light, without senses. Sleep took one emptiness and replaced it with another.  
Sleep left him whole.

Tahno blearily opened one eye, only to be greeted by the bright, full moon streaming through the dingy curtains. He groaned and rolled over pulling the white comforter over his head. Tossing and turning, he attempted to go back sleep, but after a while, figured it was a lost cause. He stumbled into the bathroom where he immediately sat down in the dusty bathtub. Turning on the tap, he watched the water flow around his feet, and the steam swirl and rise into the air. He longed to command it, feel power over it and to have it respond to him, but he knew there was no point anymore. Sighing, he put his head in his hands.

Images flashed through his mind.

The pale, white mask looming over him as he pleads for not this, anything but this.

Then pain, an agonizing pull flooding his entire body as his every nerve screams for this to stop.

The water surrounding him, heavy and unfamiliar as he claws his way to the surface.

The bright lights blinding him as he gasps for breath.

Tahno slammed his hand against the faucet and shut off the water. He stepped out of the bathtub and back into the main room. Dust motes floated through the air, illuminated by the moonlight. He looked down to find some clothes crumpled in a pile on the floor, so he threw them on. He needed to leave, to get out of his own head, to experience something other than the same thoughts constantly being replayed in his mind. Finding a few yuans and a house key in his pocket, he slammed the door to the apartment and left.


	3. Chapter 3

Nothing was clear.  
The street disappeared from underneath him as he walked out of the apartment, his entire body enshrouded.  
Nothing was there.  
Even the moon, just a few minutes before radiant and full, her light now engulfed by the fog.  
Nothing could be seen.  
Tahno stumbled, trying to find where street met sidewalk, steadied himself and walked on.  
All that guided him was the shouts of one other on the sidewalk, trying to find their way just as he was.  
He wondered why they even bothered.

Passed down through whispers and cautionary tales were stories of those children who had gone into the fog and never came back.  
Never seen again.  
If there was something that everyone in Republic City knew, it was that the fog was dangerous.

Don't breathe it in.  
Don't let it pull you into strange places.  
Don't let it take you away.  
Stay. Please stay.

He stopped.  
He couldn't move.  
Every muscle; still.

He was pulled.  
Sideways.  
Forwards.  
Backwards.

Darkness.


End file.
